Drapery hook



June 21, 1960 s. SCHWARTZ ETAL 2,941,592

DRAPERY HOOK Filed March 17, 1958 INVENTORJ- 6/04 5 Y 6 CHM/4919712DRAPERY HOOK Sidney Schwartz, Detroit, Mich., and Harold E. Guenther,Plymouth, Mich. (both of E-Z Sew Enterprises, 533 E. Forest Ave.,Detroit, Mich.)

Filed Mar. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 721,736

2 Claims. (Cl. 160-348) This invention relates to a drapery hook andmore particularly to a hook for supporting draperies fashioned withcustom-made pleats.

In making custom pleats on a drapery, the upper edge of the drapery isfolded back on itself to form a rather wide hem. In many instances, astiffening material, such as crinoline, is inserted in the hem.Thereafter, at trans- States Patent versely spaced points along the hem,the fabric is gathwith the two outer folds tacked to the upper edge ofthe drapery on opposite sides of the vertical stitch line. Hooks havebeen proposed heretofore for supporting such draperies. Usually, suchhooks are provided with a pair of fingers insertable in the pocketsadjacent the vertical stitch lines and provided with a hook memberwelded to the fingers and adapted to be engaged with a slider member onthe traverse rod. The weight of the drapery is supported by these hooks;and unless the hooks are designed to tightly grip or clamp the fabric,there is a tendency for the pleated lower edge portion of the drapery topull away from the hook and hang down with an unsightly appearance.

The object of the present invention is to provide a drapery hook that isdesigned to tightly grip the fabric at the pleats and thereby preventthe pleated portion of the drape from pulling away from the hook, eitherby reason of the weight of the drapery or by reason of the transversepull on the fabric that results when the drape is either opened orclosed.

A preferred embodiment of the drapery hook of this invention isillustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is afragmentary front elevational view of a drape provided with acustom-made pleat that is adapted to be supported by the hook of thisinvention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary rear elevational view similar to Fig. 1 andshowing the manner in which the hook of the present invention isarranged within the pockets provided by the custom-made pleat.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the hook of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a front view of the hook of the present invention. A

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5-5 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 66 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in Fig. 2. a

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line 8-8 in Fig. 4.

Referring to the drawing, particularly to Figs. 3, 4 and 8, the hook ofthe present invention comprises a length of spring wire fashioned into apair of vertically extending fingers 10 and 12 which are connected attheir er ice lower ends by a U-bend 14. The upper ends of fingers 10 and12 are formed with spherical enlargements 16 for facilitating insertionof the hook. Intermediate their ends and at a point adjacent the upperends of the fingers 10 and 12, they are bent inwardly as at 18 toprovide a pair of fabric gripping portions. The fingers 10 and 12 aregenerally straight and parallel between the inwardly bent portions 18and the U-bend 14.

A hook member 20 is arranged at one side of the plan of fingers 10 and12. Hook member 20 has a hookshaped upper end 22 which is connected to avertically depending shank having a lower portion 24 and an upperportion 25 connected by an an inwardly bent section 26. The lower end ofshank portion 24 is secured, as by spot welding, to the center portionof the U-bend as at 28. In the process of welding the shank portion 24to the U-bend 28, the metal at the juncture of these members becomesmushy and the members are squeezed together to form the fused connectionso that the shank portion 24 is parallel to, but lies partially within,the plane of the fingers 10 and 12 (see Fig. 8). The lower end portionsof fingers 10 and 12 adjacent the U-bend 14, these portions beingdesignated 10a and 12a,'are generally straight and spaced relativelyclosely to the shank portion 24 of the book. This close spacing betweenthe lower ends of fingers 10 and 12 and the shank portion 24 provides afabric pinching zone and is a primary feature of the invention here. Thesignificance of this close spacing is illustrated most clearly in Fig.5.

A fragmentary portion of the drape with which the hook of the presentinvention is used is designated 30 and the custom pleat formed thereonis designated 32. This pleat comprises three folds 34, 36 and 38. Thepleat is fashioned by turning over a relatively wide hem portion 40 atthe upper end of the drape. Within this hem portion may be arranged astrip of stiffening fabric 42, such as crinoline. At transversely spacedpoints, the folded hem portion 40 is gathered and formed into the threefolds 34, 36, 38, thegathered portion being vertically stitched such asat 44. The three folds may be tacked together at the lower end of hemportion 40 as at 46 and the two outer folds 34, 38 can be tacked to theupper edge of the underlying fabric as at 48 to provide a neatappearance to the pleat.

This construction results in the formation of pockets 50 on each side ofthe vertical stitching 44 which are open at the back side of the drapeat the lower edge of hem 40. The hook is engaged with the drapery byinserting the fingers lit and 12 into the pockets 50, one at each sideof the vertical stitching 44. The upper portion 25 of the shank of thehook is spaced from and is parallel to the plane of the fingers toprovide a fabric entry zone which facilitates insertion of the fingersinto the pleat pockets. The construction of the hook described is suchthat when it is fully inserted into the pockets 50 as shown in Fig. 2,the drapery is effectively clamped on the hook and displacement of thedrapery relative to the hook is prevented. Adjacent the upper end of thehook, the fabric of the drapery is pinched between the two inwardly bentsections 18. However, an even more effective gripping or clamping actionon the drapery fabric is provided at the previously referred to fabricpinching zone adjacent the lower end of the hook. The gripping action atthis zone is obtained by reason of the relatively close spacing of theportions 10a and 12a with respect to the lower shank portion 24 of .ingthe hem portion.

vertical stitching 44 is pinched between the shank portion 24 and therespective finger portions a and 12a. The spacing s between the adjacentsurfaces of the shank portion v24 and the finger portions 10a and 12a isslightly less than the thickness of the uncompressed fabric form- In thearrangement shown, this comprises two thicknesses of the fabric portion40 and one thickness of the stifiener 42.

tions 1.0a and 12a.

By way of example, a drapery hook formed of spring wire having adiameter of between .080" and .090" very eflectively grips a drapery ofaverage thickness when the spacing s is on the order of .030" to .050.In that particular hook, the spacing between the adjacent surfaces ofthe finger portions 10a and 12a was about and the shank portion 24projected into the plane of the finger portions 10a and 12a a distanceof about .625" to .030". The book referred to effectively gripped thehem portion of .a drapery formed of a relatively shear fabric and at thesame time could be inserted into the pockets formed by the hem of adrapery fashioned from a relatively heavy fabric.

Thus, it will be seen that the drapery hook of the present invention isdesigned to support draperies having custom-made pleats in a veryattractive manner. The gripping action afforded by the inwardly bentportions 18 is of less magnitude than the gripping or pinching actionafforded by the lower end of the hook. However, the tendency for thedrape to slip through the hook is muchmore pronounced at the lower endof the hook than at the upper end thereof; and as long as the drapery iseffectively gripped at the lower end of the hook, the pleats will retainan attractive appearance.

We claim:

1. A drapery hook adapted to support a drapery having a custom-madepleat including a pair of adjacent vertically extending pockets open attheir lower ends provided by vertical stitching, said drapery hookcomprising a pair of straight, verticallyextending, spaced, parallellegs, and a connecting portion of relatively small vertical extent lyingentirely between the axes of said parallel legs, a hook memberpositioned at one side of the plane of said fingers and having a shankwhich has an upper portion parallel to and spaced forwardly "of theplane of said legs, and a lower portion olfset from the upper portionand parallel to and substantially between said legs, the lower portionbeing Welded adjacent its lower end to said connecting portion, saidlower end portion of said shank lying medially between and parallel tosaid parallel legs and being closely spaced with respect thereto, saidparallel legs and said lower portion of said shank being co-extensive ina vertical direction for a distance one the order of at least severaltimes the spacing .between said parallel legs, whereby the fabricforming the lower end of said pocket is tightly gripped immediatelyabove the point at which said shank is welded to said connecting portionand throughout said co-extensive distance between said lower end portionof said shank and saidparallel legs.

2. A drapery hook .as defined in claim 1 wherein vertically extendingfingers are connected at their lower ends to the upper ends of saidparallel legs to form extensions of .said legs, said fingers being bentinwardly to ward each other at a section remote from said connectingportion to provide a secondpinching actionon the fabric at a pointspaced substantially above .the lower ends of the fingers. i

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,553,373 Pearlmutter May 15. 1951 2,558,467 Solomon June 26, 1951

